Classic Poem

DELINEATED .

Two sea-port cities mark Britannia's fame,
And these from commerce diff'rent honours claim.
What diff'rent-honours shall the Muses pay,
While one inspires and one untunes the lay?
Now silver Isis bright'ning flows along,
Echoing from Oxford shore each classic song,
Then weds with Thame; and these O London! see
Swelling with naval pride, the pride of thee!
Wide, deep, unsully'd, Thames meand'ring glides,
And bears thy wealth on mild majestic tides.
Thy ships, with gilded palaces that vie
In glitt'ring pomp, strike wond'ring China's eye;
And thence returning bear, in splendid state,
To Britain's merchants India's eastern freight.
India her treasures from her western shores,
Due at thy feet, a willing tribute pours;
Thy warring navies distant nations awe,
And bid the world obey thy righteous law,
Thus shine thy manly sons of lib'ral mind,
Thy Change deep-busy'd, yet as courts refin'd;
Councils, like senates, that enforce debate
With fluent eloquence and reason's weight;
Whose patriot virtue lawless Pow'r controls,
Their British emulating Roman souls:
Of these the worthiest still selected stand,
Still lead the senate, and still save the land:
Social, not selfish here, O Learning! trace
Thy friends, the lovers of all human race.
In a dark bottom sunk, O Bristol! now
With native malice lift thy low'ring brow;
Then as some hell-born sprite in mortal guise
Borrows the shape of Goodness and belies,
All fair, all smug, to yon proud hall invite,
To feast all strangers ape an air polite;
From Cambria drain'd, or England's western coast,
Not elegant, yet costly banquets boast!
Revere, or seem the stranger to revere;
Praise, fawn, profess, be all things but sincere;
Insidious now, our bosom secrets steal,
And these with sly sarcastic sneer reveal.
Present we meet thy sneaking treach'rous smiles;
The harmless absent still thy sneer reviles;
Such as in thee all parts superior find,
The sneer that marks the fool and knave combin'd;
When melting Pity would afford relief,
The ruthless sneer that insult adds to grief.
What friendship canst thou boast? what honours claim?
To thee each stranger owes an injur'd name.
What smiles thy sons must in their foes excite!
Thy sons! to whom all discord is delight;
From whom eternal mutual railing flows;
Who in each other's crimes their own expose;
Thy son's! tho' crafty, deaf to Wisdom's call,
Despising all men, and despis'd by all;
Sons! while thy cliffs a ditch-like river laves,
Rude as thy rocks, and muddy as thy waves,
Of thoughts as narrow as of words immense,
As full of turbulence as void of sense?
Thee, thee, what senatorial souls adorn!
Thy natives, sure, would prove a senate's scorn.
Do strangers deign to serve thee; what their praise?
Their gen'rous services thy murmurs raise.
What fiend malign, that o'er thy air presides,
Around from breast to breast inherent glides,
And as he glides there scatters in a trice
The lurking seeds of ev'ry rank device?
Let foreign youths to thy indentures run,
Each, each will prove, in thy adopted son,
Proud, pert, and dull — tho' brilliant once from schools,
Will scorn all learning's as all virtue's rules;
And tho' by nature, friendly, honest, brave,
Turn a sly, selfish, simp'ring, sharping knave.
Boast petty courts, where stead of fluent ease
Of cited precedents and learned pleas;
Stead of sage counsel in the dubious cause,
Attornies, chatt'ring wild, burlesque the laws —
(So shameless quacks who doctors rights invade,
Of jargon and of poison form a trade;
So canting coblers, while from tubs they teach,
Buffoon the gospel they pretend to preach)
Boast petty courts, whence rules new rigour draw,
Unknown to Nature's and to Statute law;
Quirks that explain all saving rights away
To give th' attorney and the catchpole prey.
Is there where law too rig'rous may descend,
Or Charity her kindly hand extend?
Thy courts that, shut when Pity would redress,
Spontaneous open to inflict distress,
Try misdeineanors! — all thy wiles employ,
Not to chastise th' offender, but destroy;
Bid the large lawless fine his fate foretell;
Bid it beyond his crime and fortune swell;
Cut off from service due to kindred blood,
To private welfare and to public good,
Pity'd by all but thee, he sentenc'd lies,
Imprison'd languishes, imprison'd dies.

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Boast swarming vessels, whose plebeian state
Owes not to merchants but mechanics freight;
Boast nought but pedlar fleets — in war's alarms
Unknown to glory as unknown to arms:
Boast thy base Tolsey, and thy turnspit dogs,
Thy Halliers' horses, and thy human hogs;
Upstarts and mushrooms, proud relentless hearts!
Thou blank of sciences! thou dearth of arts!
Such foes as learning once was doom'd to see,
Huns, Goths, and vandals were but types of thee!
Proceed, great Bristol! in all righteous ways,
And let one justice heighten yet thy praise;
Still spare the catamite and swinge the whore,
And be whate'er Gomorrha was before.